Walmart ordered to pay over $31 million for firing a whistleblower

Walmart has been ordered to pay more than $31 million in penalties by a New Hampshire federal jury, for unlawful retaliation and gender bias against a former pharmacist who blew the whistle on safety concerns involving her co-workers.

The lawsuit claimed that Walmart “negligently trained and supervised the pharmacy staff” at the plaintiff’s store in the New Hampshire town of Seabrook. The former pharmacist said she was fired in Nov. 2012 — after 18 years on the job — not just for blowing the whistle on potentially unsafe practices and privacy violations, but because of her gender and her “serious medical condition.”

The jury concluded that Walmart had discriminated against the plaintiff based on her gender — a violation of both the Civil Rights Act and New Hampshire state law. The jury also agreed that Walmart had retaliated against the plaintiff, not for her two-week medical leave but because of her attempts to blow the whistle on unsafe conditions at the pharmacy. So it should be no surprise that the jury believed that Walmart was in the wrong for firing the plaintiff.